"Okay," said Buck.
Christopher looked to the source of the voice. The big man was sitting against one of the medical tables. He looked pale, with twin spots of bright red on his cheeks. But he was awake, and paying close attention.
"How long have you been awake?" said Christopher.
"Since you started on with the zombies being downloaded," said Buck.
"That was the whole thing," said Christopher. "So you know everything I've said. Geez!"
Buck scowled. "Whaddya mean, 'geez'?"
"Just I… ahh, nothing." Christopher threw his hands in the air. "You take all the fun out of things, even when you don't mean to, Clucky."
Buck bristled. "You –"
"Focus," said Maggie. "This isn't the time."
Christopher felt shame burn inside him. His whole life he'd had the tendency to act in wildly inappropriate ways.
Good to know the Change didn't change everything, at least.
He turned back to the monitor, which still showed the thing moving along Hope's spine. That was enough to bring him back on point. He shuddered. "So all that happened fast. But we're forgetting something else that happened. Something that killed a lot of people, but had nothing to do with the zombies. At least, not directly."
It took a moment, then Aaron said, "The cell phones."
29
Mo spoke. "What of the cell phones?"
"If you tried to make a call, they killed you," said Aaron.
"How?" Mo looked confused.
Buck looked even more confused than the Māori. "You didn't try to make any calls?"
"I have never owned a cellular phone, my friend."
"What, do you just send messages by beating on hollow logs or something?"
Amulek reddened, but Mo didn't take the slightest offense. "Logs are impractical. We use smoke signals. Also, we wrap paper messages around rocks and throw them very far." He rubbed his bad shoulder lightly. "Alas, this was my good hand." Then he grew serious. "I dislike things that masquerade as convenience but are in fact a leash binding you to the convenience of others."
"Whatever." Buck rolled his eyes. "If you tried to call someone, there was this… what? I never did it, so what would you call it?" He looked at the rest of the group.
"A feeling, I think you'd call it," said Aaron. "I tried to call someone, and all I wanted to do was lay down and die. Dorcas – a friend –" He swallowed, and his eyes grew bright for a moment. Then he blinked back the half-formed tears. "She saved me. Knocked the phone away. But we saw people who didn't have someone there to save them. They'd just lay down and died. For no reason. Just had their hearts stop with the cell phones at their ears." He shook his head. "Damn strange."
"Right," said Christopher. He held out the TV remote. "But that brings me – nearly – to this." He looked at Lizzy. At Hope. "I think that whatever downloaded itself into half the world's population tried to download itself into all of us. But it couldn't. Some of us – half of us – had some kind of resistance. But whatever attacked us accounted for that, too. There was a more direct method of receiving the download."
"The bite," said Theresa.
Christopher nodded. "And the pretty lady wins a brand new car!" He looked at the others. "Somehow the bite focuses a direct… blast, for lack of a better term, of the download. A focused beam of the message. Enough to overcome whatever immunity we have. To Change even those of us who resisted the initial attack. That explains what happened to Ken, too: he only got a partial beam."
"You mean, why he didn't change all the way?" said Maggie.
Christopher hesitated.
"She needs to know." Aaron waited.
So why do I have to tell her?
But he did. Told her about burying her husband. About the subsequent zombie attack. About Ken – what had once been Ken – coming back and saving them. Then about his leaving.
"Where is he now?"
"We don't know."
"Was he still… was there anything still him?"
"I think so. He seemed to recognize us. He saved us, after all."
"But he didn't say anything," said Aaron. "We don't understand what happened to him, or what he is, how much of him may or may not be left."
Maggie folded her hands across her lap. "He's still him," she said. Christopher couldn't tell if it was a declaration of faith, some kind of prayer. Or if it was the last grasping hope of someone who has found a lost loved one, only to be told she would lose him again.
"So what comes next?" said Buck. His voice was gentle. That always surprised Christopher. The guy could be a major pain and a prize-winning bitcher, but as often as not he also found a way to be the one who consoled those in the group who were suffering.
Probably one of the reasons why Christopher liked him so much.
To my eternal shame.
"What comes next…. Right." Christopher pulled his gaze away from Maggie. Back to the TV remote. "So whatever is downloading is working – at least partly – on the frequencies of the cell networks. And even though I'm not a super-cool special forces guy or an awesome Māori warrior who can use a bow and arrow to shoot the nuts off a mosquito or even a lame out of work contractor –"
"Hey!" Buck shouted.
"– I still know a thing or two." He grinned. "Like how to bring down a cell network using only my mad skills and a few household items."
30
Aaron frowned. "Not possible."
Buck nodded. "You can't bring down cell towers or satellites using a TV remote."
"No, but I can stop a particular cell phone – or two – from transmitting or receiving transmissions." Christopher shook the remote in Buck's face. "That's right, sucker. Fear and tremble at my mighty anarchist skills." He pointed to the "volume up" button. "I cross a few wires, hook it all up to a cell battery, and I have a low range cell phone jammer. Highly illegal, and the kind of thing the FCC would normally come down on you like a hammer for. But since they're all wandering around looking for things to mangle – business as usual for the government, I guess – I don't feel bad using it. Also: saving the world."
Aaron looked at the remote. "You'll have to show me how you made that."
"Sure thing. You can come over to my place on Tuesday and we'll do that over beers and some chips."
"What does this matter to my children?" whispered Maggie. "Can this save them?"
"I don't know." Any jubilation melted from him. He looked at the ultrasound monitor again. "Here's what I think. I think…." His voice fell to nothing. His mouth was suddenly dry.
"What?" Buck sounded irritated.
Of course he does. Because he doesn't know.
"This has to do with the voices, doesn't it?" asked Theresa. "The two voices in our heads?"
"Yeah," said Christopher. "Only…." He gulped. Mouth still dry, it felt like he was chewing on sand. "Only I counted three."
The others looked confused. Theresa shook her head. "I heard two." She pointed at Lizzy, at Hope. "I figured – I knew somehow – that it was them."
"That was just now, right? Right before I zapped them with my magic wand?" He waved the remote. She nodded. "Yeah. But you want to know how I knew there'd be something in there?" He pointed at Hope's back. At the ultrasound.
"I was curious about that," said Buck. "You're not usually smart enough to figure stuff out."
Christopher stuck his tongue out at the guy. It made him feel a little better. "Before, when Buck and Sally were about to murder each other… I think the things in the girls were doing that. I think they had chosen protectors – Lizzy had Sally, Hope had Buck. No one else thought it was weird how a two-year-old was using a snow leopard as a pillow? And how a geriatric patch of crab grass had adopted a nice girl like Hope?"
"Christopher," Aaron said warningly.
"Fine," said Christopher. "Anyway, at first, Sally and Buck were protective toward both girls, then… they kind of chose sides. Or had sides chosen. And then suddenly the girls decided to kill each other.
But they didn't do it themselves: they had their guardians do the work. Only someone stopped it."
"Momma," said Mo.
"Right," said Christopher. "Maggie. Sorta like Ken, I think when she was all wrapped up in that gunk in the Wells Fargo building she missed getting a full shot of whatever juju the girls had. But she got enough to scream in our minds. Loud enough that it knocked some of us out. But…." He held up a finger. Waggled it in his best imitation of a prep school teacher. "And here's the important thing: When I fell down, I touched Lizzy's foot. And I had… I dunno what you'd call it, exactly. A vision, maybe. I saw what was in her. I knew it was there. I knew something was growing in her. But I also heard something else. The thing that's really pulling all the strings."
("DIE. DIE AND BE REBORN AND LIVE FOREVER IN ME.")
His mouth worked as he tried to swallow. That sand feeling returned. "It wanted us dead. Dead as part of it. It wanted us to join it, to be it. But under it –
("Come see, come serve, come save.")
" – there was another voice, too. And I got the feeling that was something that was, in a weird way, part of the Big Bad, fighting some small battle. But losing fast."
He looked at Maggie. "I think that was Derek."
31
Maggie gasped. Her hand went to her mouth. "How?" she whispered.
Buck raised a hand. "Yes, Buck?" said Christopher. "Do you have to go number one, or number two?"
Buck's eyes narrowed. "You know what I think?"
"I'm holding my breath."
"You said you heard three different voices in your head. I counted five in your little story: Maggie, her three kids, and this mastermind thing. So I think you suck at counting." Then, before Christopher could issue a crushing and appropriately sarcastic reply, he sighed and added, "But you're right. You're right about all of it."
Theresa snorted. "Well, I think you've all lost your minds. I think we need to do something about these girls, and I think it needs to be more than just zap them with a remote."
"What do you know?" Buck shouted the words. More than shouted – screamed them. "Where were you when this began? How long have you been with us? How long did you wait before you decided to kill Lizzy and Hope?" His breath came in ragged bursts, almost looking painful. Then he sank into himself. "I think he's right because I've been feeling different. I've been feeling close to Hope. And she's a good kid and I like her, but it's not really in me to go mano a mano with a damn jungle cat for a kid, no matter how much I like her. Grab her and run from the thing, yeah. But try and fight it tooth and nail? That's… that's just crazy. And…." His eyes took on a sharp cast, a haunted look. "I've heard them, too. I've heard the voices. Heard them all."
"What do you think they want?" asked Aaron.
"I think the loudest one… the farthest one… I think he's calling the girls. It – he – wants them, most of all," said Buck.
"And them – the things in them? What's their role in all this?" said Aaron.
"I don't know." Buck looked at his big hands, loose in his lap, as though they might hold answers.
"I do." Everyone looked back at Christopher. "At least, I think I do."
"Well," said Aaron after a moment, "don't be shy, son. Speak up."
Christopher finally shrugged. "They're bees."
32
Surprisingly, Buck wasn't the one to laugh. Theresa beat him to that honor. A quick grunt that had little humor and cut Christopher more than he would have expected.
He had spent most of his life proving that he shouldn't have any responsibility given to him; that he wasn't ready for it – and probably never would be. Now he wished with his whole heart he had a bit of Aaron's gravitas, was more someone that people could just trust.
He needed Ken. They'd believe Ken.
Ken's not here. They'll have to settle for you, Christopher. Quit with the one-man pity party and get this done.
"Hear me out," he said. "You know how bees reproduce?"
Theresa rolled her eyes. "I would assume when a Mommy bee and a Daddy bee fall in love, they get married and –"
Christopher cut her off. "Look, Theresa. I gotta admit, for some reason I am tremendously attracted to you even though you're not my type and you tried to kill me and my friends. But will you cut the sarcasm for a minute and either add something helpful to the mix or just shut up?"
Her mouth snapped shut so hard he thought he heard her teeth clack together. No one else made a sound, but for some reason Christopher thought he saw an approving twinkle in Mo's eyes. Like, "Good, young warrior, you have finally found your balls."
For some reason, Christopher wanted to beat his chest and do a Tarzan yell.
Focus. Not the time for ADD.
"Here's what happens with bees: The eggs are all the same. Every single bee is born to be a drone, basically. But the queen lays certain eggs in a substance called royal jelly. Because they're born in this different environment, the larvae develop into new queens. They're called virgin queens. And guess what the first thing is that they do after achieving maturity?" He looked around the room.
Aaron was looking from Hope to Lizzy. Then to Buck, then back at the girls. "They kill each other."
Christopher nodded. "Until only one is left."
"What happens with that one?" Maggie spoke so quietly that she could barely be heard.
"She mates."
33
"What do you mean, 'she mates'?" demanded Buck. "What could that –"
"It means all this – all that's happened – it's just the first wave. We're not seeing the final result, we're just seeing the house cleaning before the new owners arrive," said Aaron.
Christopher nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I think Derek – who was also in the webbing, who also got a shot of whatever the girls got – is hosting a, well, a king, I guess you'd say. And the girls have queens. Immature at first, but now they see each other as threats. So they have two jobs: to get to the king, and to kill their rival."
Maggie shuddered. Made a strangled noise. Mo put a hand on her shoulder. "Be strong, mother. Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei."
Christopher doubted that Maggie understood what the Māori had just said – he sure as hell didn't – but she nodded and drew a hand across her eyes. Sat a bit straighter.
"We've stopped them, though, right?" she said. "We've stopped the girls?" She nodded at his remote.
Christopher shook his head. "This doesn't shut down the signal. It just jams it. I think instead of laying eggs, these things – whatever they are, wherever they come from – they infect us with waves, with energy. And my super-awesome-genius toy here just keeps the waves from moving past a certain point. So I think the queens are broadcasting, and I know the king still is. Just the waves aren't getting through a little bubble I've managed to create. That's why the zombies got – well, lost, I guess you'd call it – when they came back the second time. The queens were calling them, and suddenly the call disappeared. The zombies were on their own. And they don't do well on their own."
"That would explain why they were attacking each other on their way here, too." said Aaron.
Christopher nodded. "Right. The queens now see each other as a threat. So any zombies nearby are going to break into teams, and are going to try to kill zombies on the wrong side, as well as us. Unless, I guess, they're zombies under the control of the king. Like that big burned bastard that bit Derek. And –" He glanced at Aaron, but saw no way around it. "And Dorcas. I think those two are with Derek in some special way. Like the Imperial Guard in Star Wars."
Oh, dear Lord, I've gone full-metal nerd.
"Then what do we do?" Maggie's eyes were dry, but red-rimmed, glassy. "How do we get my children back?"
"I…." Christopher shook his head. "I don't know."
"So you don't know everything," said Buck. "And suddenly the world makes sense again." He didn't say it as a joke, and Christopher felt the words not as sarcastic jabs, but as black humor that only
darkened the situation. Irony in the last, because what would ever make sense in a world that had cast out order and sanity and replaced it with… this?
"I am sorry," said Mo suddenly.
"For what?" said Christopher. The big hunter had done nothing but save them and then show them a hospitality above and beyond any they could have expected – standing with them and shedding blood to protect virtual strangers.
Fate. It's meant to be.
"I fear I brought them." He looked at his hands, mangled and swathed in makeshift bandages. "When you and Amulek went to bury your friend, I opened the door to the bunker. And that is the way the creatures entered. I fear the little girls called with these transmissions, and the creatures followed the calls. Like sharks following bits of octopus in the water. If only I had kept the hatch shut, perhaps they would not have come after us."
Christopher shook his head. "Don't be dumb, Mo. You saved us. And I think that the transmissions probably would have gotten out sooner or later. If anyone has to apologize, it's us. We got you into this."
"No. It was meant to be that you come here. That we be with you."
Amulek nodded. And Christopher felt oddly moved by the words and by the teen's agreement. Looking around, he saw that the others felt the same. Even Aaron and Theresa looked as though the world had brightened, if only a bit.
"Thanks," he said. "But like I said. None of this was your fault. Lizzy and Hope were behind the hatches to the kitchen and sleeping area when the zombies came, so the transmissions probably would have gotten out regardless. None of it was your –"
"Oh, hell," said Theresa.
"What?" Christopher felt panic well up. What now? What was the world throwing at them?
"I think I know what we can do. Maybe a way to stop this." For the first time since he had met her, Theresa smiled – fully and completely grinned. "Maybe a way to stop all of it."
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